For me it’s just simple. New Orleans people like doing what they want to do, are friendly (mostly), don’t have a problem if you have a good time (mostly), likes a bargain, wants you to ask nicely, works hard, plays harder, and will generally tell you just what’s on their mind whether you asked them or not.

You didn’t ask me about who I think are stranger people than New Orleanians but I’m gonna tell you anyway. And I present this a little carefully cause people I know and love are living in some of these cities, and are some of these people. But it’s strange to me.

So, here we go: The Top 5 Places with the Strangest People In America.

5) Philadelphia – They got a jail at the football stadium. They pelted Santa Claus with snowballs. There is clearly an anger management issue here. Or even if it was all alcohol induced then no one should be getting that violent just cause they’re drinking. Hell, fighting cause you’re drinking is just crazy.

4) Utah – Maybe it’s them, maybe it’s me. Utah has always seemed to me like something out of a David Lynch movie where everything seems hyper-normal but there is a horrible secret that no one is talking about.

3) New York City – Seriously, I love New Yorkers, LOVE THEM. But New Yorkers walk around as two people every day. Outside New Yorkers and Inside New Yorkers. Outside New Yorkers, there on the streets of the city are rude, gruff, focused and ready to run you over. Once you get them inside and they become Inside New Yorkers they transform into friendly, nice, helpful and funny people. It’s strange to me and makes me think they are all sort of suffering under some bipolar disease they get from eating pizza & riding in the subway.

2) San Fransisco – OK. I know there are a lot of different San Franciscans. And I’m not talking about Mission taqueria employees or Chinatown dumpling cooks. And I know a LOT of San Franciscans and I like the ones I know but I still think, as a group, they are a little strange. There is a certain mix of self-righteousness and naivete that can be either charming, amusing, irritating or infuriating depending upon whether you are a target of their wrath or just a bystander. My initial takes on the people from my visits were that 1)Half the folks were working a scam and the other half were naively hoping the first half weren’t working a scam (ok so I exited the BART in the Tenderloin) And 2) They would stand in the longer line just to prove that they were somehow “better” than you. (I wasn’t sure what they thought this proved, that they were more patient, willing to endure more suffering? so altruistic that they were willing to forgo ANY advantage? ) And there also seems to be a lot of working very hard to try to “be unique” and a level of busy-bodyness that would make Ms. Kravitz from “Bewitched” seem laid back.

1) The bible -belt south. OK. This is gonna be a laundry list of strangeness to me. Dry Counties when you know most folks drink (Hello Lynchburg Tennessee, home of Jack Daniels), Criteria for dating that includes mandatory church attendance. Saying “Bless your heart” when what you really mean “My god, are you an idiot?” A sense of entitlement based upon church attendance (or even in some cases a passing familiarity with the Bible). It’s all very strange to me.

Now, this isn’t intended to hurt anyone’s feelings. This is all stranger to me than anything I see in New Orleans.

Oh, and the runners up are:

San Diego – Cause even the homeless people look like they came out of a Land’s End Catalog so you don’t know they are crazy until they are right there on top of you. And

Portland – This is based mostly on the folks who have come to New Orleans from Portland who seem to try to project all the “do good” spirit they can but also seem to have a lot of contempt for the folks they think they are “doing good” for. I suspect this is also how it operates in Portland itself. And hearing about their zoning code I tend to think they just like making things difficult for themselves.

Well, that’s about it. 5 places that a New Orleanian thinks have the strangest people in the country.